Nigel Farage could snatch up to 450 council seats as Kemi Badenoch’s Tories look to set to lose almost half of the wards its currently defending, a top pollster has claimed.
Lord Hayward, a polling expert and Tory peer, suggested Reform UK could expect gains between 400 and 450 seats.
Such a scenario would mean Farage ends up returning the most councillors, having not won a single seat four years ago.
Meanwhile, Badenoch, who already admitted the Tories face a “difficult” set of Local Elections, could win as little as 375 wards, putting net losses at 525.
Despite a significant drop in the opinion polls, Sir Keir Starmer appears to have been handed a boost as Hayward expects very little change compared to 2021.
Lord Hayward told The Telegraph: “They will make some gains from the Conservatives but there will be losses to Reform and others.
“They will fail to take seats in the Midlands and the North that they should have won.”
Addressing the threat posed by the Liberal Democrats, the polling guru added: “In the South and West it will be predominantly the Conservatives versus the Liberal Democrats, while Labour versus Reform will be fighting it out for dominance in the East Midlands and the North.
“The dividing line will, in essence, be a line from the Wash to the Severn.”
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